A Pearl in the Poppy Fields
by Wasmowin93
Summary: She tried to forget, but somethings can never be forgotten.


The sun crests over the horizon. The air is cool and gentle. The shroud of night is slowly lifted. She squints as the warm light rays shine in her eyes.  
As her eyes grow use to the light, she is welcomed by a brilliant red dawn. Flower petals dance in the breeze.  
Poppies, a field of poppies as far as the eye can see. She reaches down and plucks a handful of the red flowers. She felt so at peace.  
She began to skip and prance through the poppy fields, giggling as their petals kissed her feet.  
After she frolicked carefree through the flowers she grew tired and laid down in the middle of the field. She smiled, the sky was blue and cloudless.  
With a content sigh, she rolled over and yawned, closing her eyes as she did so.  
She opened her eyes and found a skull staring back at her.  
She screamed and tried to flee from it but slipped and fell. The once lush ground was now thick with mud and water.  
She wiped the mud from her eyes and started to run. The sky was now gray, and the fields littered with dead bodies.  
Something snagged her leg and she fell face first into a puddle off water.  
When she looked up she found that she was surrounded by earth and rotting wooden timbers with barbed wire stretching for miles.  
Poppy petals fell from the sky, like a red snowfall. She held out her hand and caught a handful of petals.  
When she opened her hand, the petals had turned to blood.

* * *

Pearl awoke with a scream and summoned her spear. She took fast, shallow breaths as cold sweat ran down her face. She looked around and realized she was in the living room.

"J-just a dream?" she rasped still shaking.

It was around midnight and the other gems were in their rooms. Pearl remembered starting a movie with Steven but must have fallen asleep.  
She thought about going to her room, but the darkness of the house made her feel trapped. Scared and cold, Pearl curled up and cried softly.

"It wasn't real, it wasn't real, it wasn't real," she repeated to herself as she tried to keep awake.

Startled by the scream, Steven rolled out of his bed. With his blanket in hand, he tip toed down the stairs. As he crept into the living room, he heard a soft whimper.  
He cautiously approached the source of the whimper.

"Pearl?"

She gasped and jolted with surprise as she looked up at him. She sighed with relief when she saw that it was indeed Steven.

"Steven, you startled me," she exclaimed with a nervous chuckle. She began to wipe the tears from her eyes. Steven could tell something was wrong.  
Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and she was shaking.

"What's wrong, Pearl?" he asked with concern. He hadn't seen her this shaken since his near aging to death. Pearl shook her head dismissively.

"It was nothing," she said with a forced smile. "Just a bad dream."

Steven may have been naive, but he was no fool. He had heard her scream, no normal nightmare does that.  
Pearl was silent for a moment, then she took a long look at Steven. Fresh tears began to swell in her eyes as she began to cry once more.  
Pearl suddenly felt Steven put his arms around her.

"Stop...crying, Pearl," he pleaded with watery eyes. "Or-or I'll start crying. Then you'll start crying harder, and then-"

Pearl hushed him and held him closely to her. She gently rubbed her forehead against his.

_Gas! Gas! Gas!_

_ I cant breath!_

_ Fall back!_

Pearl gasped and clung to Steven as voices cried out in her head. He could hear her heart start to race.

"There's nothing to be scared of, Pearl," Steven assured. "We are all safe."

In truth, Pearl wasn't frightened from the dream any longer. What Pearl was doing now was grieving.

As the two spent the remainder of the night together, Pearl continued to think back to years gone by.  
The only bad thing about being immortal is meeting many great people, making dear friends, and out living them all.

* * *

France 1916

Pearl had been sent to France to retrieve a crystal artifact that the French army had accidentally dug up while digging new trenches.  
While she was there, Pearl had met a young rifle man. He was small, soft spoken, but very friendly and polite. She could tell that he had never seen combat before. While the artifact was being excavated, the two began to talk. Soon they were smiling and laughing. Quickly, the two had become friends.  
The trench she was located in had seen very little action, so the mood was pretty lax.

"We are all safe," the rifle man would assure himself over and over again.

All was relatively calm, until several canisters fell from the sky and into the trench.

The canisters sparked and popped then released a yellow-brown smoke.

"Gas, gas, gas!" a soldier yelled as loud as he could.

More canisters fell into the trench.  
Pearl was confused, how could gas be frightening? Then she felt it, the deep burning in her lungs. Her eyes started to burn and tear up uncontrollably.  
She heard soldiers scream and cry out in pain as the gas burned them from the inside out.  
Those who had managed to get on their gas masks were still coughing and gagging.  
Pearl was lucky, being a crystal gem the poisonous gas couldn't kill her, but it still ravaged her insides. She started to vomit and gag as her body filtered out the toxins.

Over the shouts and wailing, she heard a distant boom. Suddenly, the ground erupted in a shower of fire and earth.

"Mortars!" she heard someone yell. "Everyone, keep dow-"

A mortar blew the shouting man apart.  
More mortars fell and struck the trenches, killing many of the soldiers within them.  
Pearl needed to escape, this was not her war. She had to retrieve the crystal artifact and leave.  
The dig sight was located on the other side of the trench. She braced herself, then ran as fast as she could.  
She duck and wove through the trench as bullets zipped over her head. She could see the dig sight, she was so close.  
With only a few feet between her and the artifact, Pearl started to run frantically. Before she could reach the artifact, a mortar struck right in front of her.  
The blast tossed her into the air. With a loud thud, she hit the ground. Pearl didn't get back up right away as she normally would have, this time was different. Everything seemed muffled and distant. Her ears were ringing and her head was pounding.  
Before she could stand back up, another mortar stuck the tench beside her.  
The earth crumbled and fell over Pearl's torso, burying her.

"Retreat, everyone fall back!"

The soldiers began to crawl over the opposite side of their trench and run away. They were leaving with out her.  
She called out to them, but none tried to help her.  
Suddenly, several soldiers with gas masks and spiked helmets jumped down into the trench.

"Vorstoßen, schieß diese ziele!" one of the spiked helmeted soldiers yelled.

"Jawohl!"

The spiked helmeted soldiers advanced over the trench and pursued the retreating French soldiers. None of them even noticed Pearl.  
Without even a passing glance, the soldiers were gone, leaving Pearl alone in the trench. She laid for what felt like an eternity.  
Everything was quiet with the exception of a few pained moans of dying French soldiers.  
Pearl hear a loud cough above her head. She turned her neck as best as she could to see where the coughing was coming from.  
It was the young rifle man she had befriended. He was bleeding from his legs and was suffering from mustard gas inhalation.  
He rolled over on his stomach and spotted her. He smiled weakly and started to crawl over to her.

"D-don't you worry, miss," he strained as he crawled. "I'll get you out of there."

He crawled through the trench with his hands deep in mud and water. Just as it looked like he might actually reach her, a boot stomped down on his back.  
Standing over him was a spiked helmeted soldier. He figured that since the enemy had been driven out, he could help himself to whatever they had of value.  
The grave robber kick the young soldier over onto his back.

"Hast du was für mich? Französisch Schwein!" he cursed through his mask.

He raised his rifle and bayonet and drove it through the young soldier's chest. Pearl wanted to cry out, but the weight of the dirt constricted her lungs.

Once he was sure that the young soldier was dead, the robber started to rummage through his pockets and clothing.  
As he searched Pearl could only watch as he defiled the young man's body. Just as the robber was about to give up, he noticed the glimmer of Pearl's gem.

"Was ist das?" he said curious as he began to move towards her.

Pearl started to panic, she tried to move but she was buried too deep. The robber knelt down above her.  
He ran his hand over her face and worked his way to her chest.

"Wie schön..." he hissed lustfully as he took a moment to grope her.

Pearl thrashed and snapped at him with her teeth, which seemed to amuse the robber.  
Then his eyes fell upon her gem.  
It was the largest jewel this grave robber had ever seen. With a jewel that big, he could buy his way out of the war an live like a king.  
Suddenly, he tried to pull her gem stone out of her forehead.  
Should he manage to crack or remove the gem, it would kill her. But the gem wouldn't budge.

"Gott verdammt!" he cursed as he pulled harder.

He then unsheathed a knife and tried to pry the gem loose.  
Pearl screamed in pain as the knife cut into her. Her gem flashed as the robber tried to wedge the blade under gem stone.  
Suddenly, Pearl's spear flashed from her gem and impaled the robber through the head.  
His arms fell limp and he collapsed on top of her. She managed to move him off of her but even then she was still stuck. Everything felt unreal to her.  
The sky was so gray, the water stank of gore, and the mud managed to sludge up everywhere she could see.  
She laid there, in that trench staring up at the sky for days before she finally blacked out.

The next thing she knew, she was recovering at the crystal temple with Garnet, Amethyst, and Rose.  
She told them what had happened, but it didn't make her feel any better.  
For then next century, she would occasionally have terrifying nightmares about the trenches.  
Back then, Rose was there to comfort her, but now Rose was gone. She was gone, but now Steven was the one who tried his best to comfort her.

* * *

Pearl smiled and kissed the now sleeping Steven on the top of his head. He was so much like a son to her.  
It must have been frighting for him to have seen her so distraught. She wiped her eyes and yawned.  
She never told him about the dream, she figured he was too young to understand. But knowing that he was there for her was very comforting.  
With the sound of his breathing lulling her to sleep, Pearl shut her eyes.  
Though she would never be able to forget the horrors of the First World War, she knew that she didn't have to deal with the painful memories alone.

"I love you, Steven," Pearl whispered in a motherly tone before finally falling asleep.


End file.
